Period 16: The Girl Under The Bed
'The Girl Under The Bed '''is the 16th chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 4th chapter in the volume 4 manga. Premise ''Yukina decides to play a prank on her friends when she overhears them admit that they don't like her and want her to go away. Feeling betrayed, she decides to seek revenge by playing several pranks based on the story of the Girl Beneath the Bed.... Yomi's Introduction Yomi is sitting in a bedroom with tea, dressed in her pajamas when she brings up how sometimes you just don't feel like getting out of bed. However, she remarks that at times people likely begin to wonder what is under their bed- despite knowing, they feel that there is something else. The story for today's lesson revolves around it. Summary At their friends home one day, a group of girls tell scary stories to each other. Yukina listens as Rina brings up The Girl Under the Bed, explaining that she is the spirit of a girl who had been betrayed by her friend, when she stole her boyfriend away from her. She committed suicide on her bed, and since then she searches for those who hurt her by hiding beneath others beds. She kills girls with no discrimination- suddenly, Maria gets called by her mother to let her know that it's getting late, effectively startling the girls. Seeing what time it is, they prepare to leave as Yukina teasingly claims that she nearly peed herself. In this time Yukina remembers meeting her friends back around the time middle school began. They quickly became inseparable, and each day they hang out at someone's home for a while. It's then she spots the cute new charm Maria has on her phone and asks about it. Maria explains that they went to Screaming Land together this past weekend and bought them so that they could match. She is quick to apologize and say she would have invited Yukina, but only had three tickets, and while Yukina is disappointed she understands, asking that they invite her next time too. Maria agrees and heads off with Rina after she asks to use the restroom before going. In this time Yukina spots Maria's bed and decides to hide under it as a harmless revenge prank for not being invited. However, Maria returns, assuming Yukina already left when she doesn't see her and she makes conversation with Rina on the phone. Before Yukina can surprise her, she quietly continues to listen after hearing her name get brought up; but not in a way she would have liked, hearing Maria say "Wouldn't it be bad if Yukina realized she was being rejected?". She listens as Maria and Rina share a laugh over how lame Yukina is, saying she isn't funny at all and only befriended her because they sat near her. It's then Maria gets called for dinner and she ends her chat with Rina, leaving the still hiding Yukina to silently weep from under the bed. After she sees the coast is clear she crawls out from under the bed and hurriedly leaves, running down the stairs and out the door; leaving Maria and her mother to wonder what the noise was as they sit at the table. The following day at school everyone is told to get into groups of four when the girls approach Yukina to join her. She stares at them with shock and can hardly believe they would even think to approach her with what she knows now, and as the weight of realizing their friendship was faked settles in, she remains silent as they get to work. They ask if she is okay but she doesn't pay them attention, focused on trying to make herself feel better until she hears them discuss plans to meet up again and tell more scary stories. She asks if she can join them as well and initially they seemed concerned, pointing out how far away her place is from Maria's when not at school, but they agree when she claims not to mind. A few days later the girls meet up again and get to telling scary stories as planned. But after having enough, one of the girls brings up that Oota, a boy from Class C likes Maria. She appears doubtful, but the subject is dropped when Yukina suddenly cries out in horror to reveal a large wad of messy black hair from beneath the bed. The girls are alarmed and quickly realize it looks nothing like Maria's hair, so it can't be hers. The oddity puts Maria on edge until they decide they should be getting home and prepare to take off, heading to her front door. Just then Yukina recalls she forgot something and asks if she can go and get it. Maria agrees and watches as she runs back up to the bedroom, and once she sees that nobody is near, Yukin takes out a jar of paint and calls for the girls claiming to have found something. They rush up to see and found red paint splattered on her blanket with TRAITOR ''written on it. Yukina says she found it like that when she came in, then smirks to herself while leaving, hearing the girls discuss the story while Maria suffers a minor breakdown. However, Yukina isn't entirely satisfied yet, and soon she sees her pranks are beginning to have a poor effect on Maria; who has been reduced to a nervous wreck in class. Her friends attempt to comfort her as she recalls the lack of sleep she got due to having horrible nightmares lately, but Yukina shows no remorse considering she deserves it for faking friendship with her. As Maria recalls that her parents will be away for the evening, she begs her friends to spend the night but both claim they are too busy or can't, leaving Yukina to volunteer. Maria is relieved by this and thanks her. That evening, Yukina patiently waits for Maria to return with drinks when she spots her cellphone charm. Still angered, she reaches into her backpack to pull out a hammer and prepares to smash it; only to hear footsteps and find Maria and Rina staring at her from the doorway. They aren't very surprised, with Maria revealing that they had been suspicious of her this entire time due to Yukina being the one who kept finding everything. She is stunned as Maria begins to yell at her for being so cruel to do this and asks if something is wrong with her head for her to get that angry that they didn't include her before forcibly tossing Yukina outside and into the mud. As Yukina cries, Maria and her friends coldly accuse her of being a traitor- since she was never their friend to begin with, then laugh at her before going inside. Humiliated even further, Yukina snaps. The following day at school, Yukina avoids the girls and listens as they converse about going to Harajuku on Sunday, making sure to point out that it will be fine because "''that annoying person wont be there". Once school ends, Yukina rushes back to Maria's house and finds her mother there. As her mother doesn't know what happened, she invites Yukina inside after she explains that she had planned on leaving Maria a surprise and heads up to her bedroom. Yukina hides beneath Maria's bed yet again, deciding that she will see to it that Maria suffers for what she did. However, she patiently waits and Maria never shows up. A few hours pass when suddenly, she hears someone step into the room and snaps out of her daze to see they have a gown and dark painted toe nails. She knows it can't be Maria, and worries if it may be her mother; but as they get closer she begins to panic after realizing it can't be. The figure walks near the bed and stands there, then they perch themselves on it and drape their long, black tangled hair over the edge. It's then Maria arrives home and greets her mother. As this is going on Yukina happens to notice that the strange figure has vanished. She crawls out from under the bed again and turns to find no sight or sound of her, and unwilling to stay any longer she thrusts open the door and runs past the startled Maria, who tries to speak to her wondering why she was there. Yukina says nothing and runs straight for home to take shelter in her bedroom, still panicking while wondering if she was hallucinating. After convincing herself that she must have been, Yukina considers turning in for the evening to rest. But she hears strange creaking sounds again, this time from beneath the bed. She tries to reason that it's just her, due to being on it, but hearing further sounds she forces herself to look under her bed to prove to herself that she's just imagining things; and as expected nothing is there. She sighs and sits back up as her mother calls her for dinner. Just as Yukina puts down her stuffed doll and stands up, she hears a sudden sound, alarming her until she turns to find her rabbit doll now torn apart- from a knife being wielded by the girl from under the bed. She announces that she has just found the Traitor, leaving Yukina to react in horror. Yomi's Epilogue Yomi observes the torn apart toy and remarks that the ghost has finally found a traitor. She then asks the readers if the area under their bed is alright so that they can sleep peacefully, and she turns off her light. Characters *Yukina *Maria *Rina *Un-named fourth Friend *Maria's Mother *The Girl Under The Bed Quotes Trivia *Yomi makes a cameo on a magazine cover on the first page. Gallery Category:Vol 4 Category:Chapters Category:Manga